Top 25 Cities for Workers With Disabilities

Approximately 61 million people in the United States live with disabilities, defined as physical or mental conditions that impair one’s ability to carry out day-to-day activities. Just 18% of Americans with disabilities are employed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and 26% live in poverty. However, where you live can make the difference between economic opportunity and significant financial difficulty.

To understand where people with disabilities are more likely to be welcomed and supported in the labor market, MoneyGeek analyzed key measures of workforce participation, poverty and access to crucial services such as transportation and health care in 218 American cities.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects people with disabilities from discrimination in the workplace, but that doesn’t mean that people with disabilities have truly equal access to employment opportunities.

More subtle forms of bias and lack of accommodations can keep people with disabilities out of the workforce.

Other challenges can include lack of access to transportation. For example, in Arlington, TX — which ranked 135th on our list — 0% of workers with disabilities reported taking public transit to work. People with disabilities can modify vehicles to drive and access free "paratransit" services, but that doesn’t mean transportation is always easy or workable for a daily commute.

The financial costs of living with a disability can also be high, even with health insurance coverage, which most people with disabilities have. Financial planning and management can be challenging, and building wealth — such as through homeownership — can be out of reach for many people with disabilities living on Social Security benefits.

According to the National Disability Institute, people living with disabilities are three times more likely to report extreme difficulty paying bills and more than twice as likely to earn less than $35,000 per year compared to people without disabilities. It’s still legal to pay workers living with certain disabilities less than the Federal minimum wage in the United States.

“The lack of income leads to a greater likelihood that people with disabilities are unbanked, skip medical appointments and miss housing payments than people without disabilities,” said Jill Reynolds, associate practice area head for human services at Public Consulting Group.

Our rankings show a wide range of local conditions for workers with disabilities and tremendous opportunities for improvement — even in the highest-ranking locations. People with disabilities and their advocates can champion changes to improve opportunities for workers with disabilities.

According to Julie Christensen, Executive Director and Director of Policy and Advocacy, Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE): “One of the most effective forms of advocacy is to promote stories of success. But this needs to be a shared responsibility. When workers with disabilities are able to share their stories, it can be incredibly powerful in breaking down some of the misconceptions and stigma that still exists. However, not everyone wants to focus on being different. We need more business leaders to tell their stories of how the inclusion of people with disabilities enhances their overall business and outcomes. These stories would shift the narrative from simply a feel-good story to demonstrating the contributions and value that people with disabilities bring to the workplace."

Here are a few things anyone can do to help advocate for people with disabilities:

To rank the cities where workers with disabilities are finding the best employment opportunities, MoneyGeek analyzed data from the American Community Survey, MoneyGeek’s Safest Cities and Safest Small Cities and Towns studies, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. MoneyGeek started with over 600 places in America that had populations of people living with disabilities of 10,000 or more. Places without granular data about workers with disabilities or lacking other data points for the analysis were removed to get to the final set of 218 cities.

The ranking of the top cities for workers with disabilities was based on six factors: safety, the population of people living with disabilities, labor force participation, poverty rates, health insurance rates for people with disabilities and cost of living. Each factor in the study was scaled to a score between 0 and 1. The factors were calculated as follows:

Population (full weight): The size of the community of people with disabilities was used as a proxy for the availability of services that support this community. Cities with less than 10,000 people with disabilities were removed from consideration in the analysis.

Labor Force Participation (double weight): This metric equally comprises two metrics.

• Labor Force Participation Rate (75%): The percentage of the population of people who have disabilities that are working or looking for employment.
• Labor Force Participation Gap (25%): The difference in percentage points of the rate of labor force participation compared to the labor force participation rate of people who don’t have disabilities.

Poverty Rate (full weight): This factor equally comprises two metrics.

• Above Poverty Rate (50%): The rate of people with disabilities at or above the poverty level.
• Above Poverty Gap (50%): The percentage point difference of the city’s rate of workers with disabilities earning at or above the poverty level and the poverty rate of all other people in the city.

Health Insurance (full weight): The difference in percentage points between the rate of workers with disabilities ages 18–64 that have health insurance and the rate of health insurance nationally.

Transportation (double weight): This factor is the percentage of workers that take public transportation.

Cost of Living (full weight): This factor adjusts for the cost of living in a city.

The data points presented are defined as follows:

• Population With Disability: Size of the population of people with disabilities in the city.
• Pop. w. Disability - Labor Force Participation: The percentage of people who live with a disability that have a job or are looking for one.
• Labor Force Gap: Difference in the labor force participation rate between people with disabilities and those without disabilities.
• Poverty Level With Disability: The percentage of the population that is at or above the poverty level.
• Health Insurance Coverage - With Disability: The percentage of the 18–64 population of people with disabilities that have health insurance.